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Encyclopedia Britannica



HOCUS

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 556 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HIG-HOR
HOCUS , a shortened form of " houus pocus," used in the 17th
century
  in the sense of "to play a
trick
  on any one," to "hoax," which is generally taken to be a derivative. "Hocus pocus " appears to have been a mock Latin expression first used as the name of a juggler or conjurer. Thus in Ady's Candle in the Dark ;1655), quoted in the New
English
  Dictionary, " I will speak of one man . . . that went about in King James his time . . . who called himself, The Kings Majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was called, because that at the playing of every
Trick
 , he used to say, Hocus pocus, tontus talontus, wade celeriter jubeo, a dark composure of words, to blinde the eyes of the beholders, to make his Trick pass the more currantly without discovery." Tillotson's guess'(Sermons, xxvi.) that the phrase was a corruption of hoc est corpus and alluded to the words of the
Eucharist
 , " in ridiculous imitation of the priests of the
Church
  of Rome in their trick of
Transubstantiation
 ," has frequently been accepted as a serious derivation, but has no
foundation
 . A connexion with a supposed demon of Scandinavian mythology, called " Ochus Bochus," is equally unwarranted. " Hocus " is used as a verb, meaning to drug, stupefy with opium, &c., for a criminal purpose. This use
dates
  from the beginning of the 19th
century
 .


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